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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/25775743">Dragon or Viking?</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/NinjaUkulele/pseuds/NinjaUkulele'>NinjaUkulele</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>How to Train Your Dragon (Movies)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Magic, Aromantic, Asexual Character, BAMF Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III, Canon-Typical Violence, Canonical Character Death, Different Gods &amp; Goddesses, Feral Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III, Found Family, Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III &amp; Toothless Friendship, Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III Needs a Hug, Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III and Dragons, In more ways than one, Multi, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Protective Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III, Protective Toothless (How to Train Your Dragon), let him say fuck</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>In-Progress</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-08-08</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-08-07</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-05 07:07:34</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Major Character Death</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>2,011</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/25775743</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/NinjaUkulele/pseuds/NinjaUkulele</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>"Figure out which side you're on!"</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III &amp; Toothless, Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III/Astrid Hofferson (One-Sided), Other Relationship Tags to Be Added</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>2</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>54</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Dragon or Viking?</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>me? writing a httyd fic? more likely than you think</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <em>This is Berk. It’s twelve days north of hopeless and a few degrees south of freezing to death. It’s located solidly on the meridian of misery. My village. In a word? Sturdy. It’s been here for seven generations, but every single building is new. We have fishing, hunting, and a charming view of the sunsets.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>The only problems are the pests. Y’see, most places have mice or mosquitos. We have…</em>
</p><p>He opened the door and was almost immediately met with the glare of a monstrous nightmare. Correctly guessing that it would shoot fire at him, he slammed the door closed.</p><p>“Dragons.”</p><p>
  <em>Most people would leave. Not us. We’re Vikings, we have...stubbornness issues.</em>
</p><p>He ran outside, a smile on his face. Someone landed in front of him, and he had to make a sharp turn to avoid tripping over the poor guy (who quickly got up and ran right back into the fray).</p><p>
  <em>My name’s Hiccup. Great name, I know. But it’s not the worst. Parents believe a hideous name will frighten off gnomes and trolls. Like our charming Viking demeanor wouldn’t do that.</em>
</p><p>He ended up falling on his back after running down a flight of stairs. A man with cinders in his beard screamed in his face before saying “Mornin’!” and running off again. He got back to his feet and started making his way to his destination again. Villagers telling him to get back inside as he made his way over. </p><p>He almost ran into a nadder’s line of fire before he was grabbed by the back of his fur vest.</p><p>“Hiccup!” The large man with bright red hair and large beard held him up, “What is he doin out ag-” He seemed to realize he could just ask Hiccup himself that question, “What are you doing out? Get inside!” He didn’t even wait for a perfectly logical answer and tossed him aside.</p><p>
  <em>That’s Stoick the Vast, chief of the tribe. They say when he was a baby, he popped a dragon’s head clean off its shoulders. Do I believe it?</em>
</p><p>Stoick grabbed a nearby empty cart and threw it at a deadly nadder flying near them, hitting it and stunning it for a second before it flew off.</p><p>
  <em>Yes, I do.</em>
</p><p>“What have we got?”</p><p>“Nadders, Gronckles, Zipplebacks. Oh, and Port saw a Monstrous Nightmare.”</p><p>Something behind them blew up, causing a burning piece of wood to land on Stoick’s metal shoulder pad.</p><p>“Any Night Furies?”</p><p>He brushed it off.</p><p>“None so far.”</p><p>“Good.”</p><p>He kept running. His destination was pretty much on the other side of the village from his house. Around him, the Vikings were setting up the tall torches that were littered around the village to better see the dragons flying overhead during nighttime raids.</p><p>He finally made it, quickly sliding his vest off and putting his apron on.</p><p>“How nice of you to join the party!” A man with no beard, but a long, blonde mustache said. He had a bit of an under-bite and his helmet had a pair of tall horns coming out of it, “I thought you'd’ve been carried off.”</p><p>“What? Who, me? Nooo I’m waay too muscular for their taste,” he picked up part of a mace and hung it up on the wall, “They wouldn’t know what to do with all this.”</p><p>“Well, they need toothpicks, don't they?” He switched out his prosthetic hand from a hammer to a wrench to bend a piece of metal into place.</p><p>
  <em>The meathead with attitude and interchangeable hands is Gobber. I’ve been his apprentice ever since I was little. Well...littler.</em>
</p><p>“Fire!” A Viking yelled, causing the ragtag team of other teens to run by. The fire brigade. It was their job to put out as many fires as they could so that there were fewer repairs to be done.</p><p>“All right, let’s go!” A female teen yelled, the leader of the group.</p><p>
  <em>There was Fishlegs, a bit on the chubby side but the smartest out of all of them. Snotlout, his cousin, brash and more of a fighter than a thinker. The twins, Ruffnut and Tuffnut, pranksters, but smarter than they seem. And Astrid, the leader of the group. She’s the second smartest and definitely the strongest.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>Their job is so much cooler</em>
</p><p>Gobber grabbed him by the back of his shirt and lifted him, carrying him back inside the workshop.</p><p>“Oh, come on! Let me out, please? I need to make my mark!”</p><p>“You’ve made plenty of marks, all in the wrong places!”</p><p>“Please, two minutes? I’ll kill a dragon, my life will get infinitely better, I might even make some actual friends!”</p><p>“You can’t lift a hammer, you can’t swing an axe,” He picked up a bola from the ground, “You can’t even throw one of these!” A Viking grabbed it and threw it at a gronckle flying a bit too close.</p><p>Hiccup backed up a bit, glancing quickly at the line of Vikings forming outside the workshop, “Okay, fine, but this will throw it for me!” He pat the catapult and it went off, flinging a bola at an unsuspecting Viking’s head.</p><p>“See? Now, this right here is what I’m talking about!”</p><p>“Wh- b- its - a mild calibration issue-”</p><p>“Don't- No, Hiccup, if you want to get out there to fight dragons, you need to stop all...this.”</p><p>“But you just pointed to all of me!”</p><p>“Yes, that's it, stop being all of you.”</p><p>“Ooohh”</p><p>“<em>Ooohh yeah.</em>”</p><p>“You- you, sir, are playing a dangerous game! Keeping all this..raw...vikingness contained. There will be consequences!”</p><p>“I’ll take my chances. Sword. Sharpened. Now.” </p><p>
  <em>One day, I’ll get out there. Because killing a dragon is everything around here. A nadder head is sure to get me at least noticed. Gronckles are tough, taking down one of those would definitely nab me at least one friend. Probably Fishlegs. A zippleback? Exotic. Two heads, twice the status. And then, there’s the monstrous nightmare. Only the best Vikings go after those, they have a nasty habit of setting themselves on fire.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>But the ultimate prize is the dragon no one’s ever seen.</em>
</p><p>A sharp whistling tore through the air.</p><p>
  <em>They call it the…</em>
</p><p>“Night Fury!” “Get down!”</p><p>It shot at the watchtower Stoick and some other Vikings were defending, cause them to abandon it.</p><p>
  <em>This dragon never steals food, never shows itself, and…</em>
</p><p>It shot at the watchtower again, toppling it completely.</p><p>
  <em>Never misses. </em>
</p><p>
  <em>No one has ever killed a Night Fury. That’s why I’m gonna be the first.</em>
</p><p>He started walking over to the back exit, near where Gobber was switching out his wench hand for a battleaxe one, “Man the fort, Hiccup. They need me out there.” Gobber started walking towards the front entrance before stopping and turning around, pointing a finger at him, “Stay. Put. There. You know what I mean.” He ran out into the battle, yelling a wordless war cry.</p><p>Hiccup smirked to himself and grabbed the catapult, wheeling it out while several Vikings yelled at him to get inside. As he ran, he saw 3 nadders fighting Stoick and some other Vikings, getting captured. They already had a nadder for training, so they would likely kill those.</p><p>He reached his destination, an empty cliff facing a watchtower. He opened up the catapult and readied the bola, looking up into the sky for the silhouette of the Night Fury.</p><p>It shot at the tower in front of him, giving him enough time to see the full silhouette and fire at it, the backlash on the catapult causing him to get launched onto his back a foot or two away from the catapult. He quickly scrambled up and heard a pained screech, a ball of black falling out of the sky, “O-oh, I hit it. Yes! I hit it! Did anybody see that?”</p><p>He heard the sound of his lovingly crafted catapult being crushed behind him and turned around to see a nightmare glaring at him, “...except for you.”</p><p>He turned around and ran, screaming, as the nightmare tried to take a big ol’ chomp out of him. Why didn't it use its fire right then and there? Hiccup couldn’t tell you. He was nearing one of the torches and hid behind it as the nightmare shot fire at him. </p><p>He turned, catching the group of nadders being held down by nets, and looked behind him to see...no monstrous nightmare. Well. Wasn’t that wor- oh shit hi Stoick you just slammed into the nightmare’s head.</p><p>He watched as Stoick fought the dragon off; the nightmare having used up its shot limit chasing him around, and back up from the flaming torch, only just now having noticed his hand was a bit too close to the part on fire.</p><p>
  <em>Oh, and there’s one more thing you need to know.</em>
</p><p>The torch finally gave under all the weight and fell, reeling Hiccup just kinda...standing there, as the torch fell and the brazier part broke off, rolling down the stairs and through the small group of nadders, freeing them. It probably broke several other things in the process.</p><p>“Sorry..dad…”</p><p>He, and the rest of the village, watched as the thunder that attacked them flew away mostly intact, even using some nets as makeshift bags to carry more sheep off.</p><p>"Okay, but I hit a Night Fury."</p><p>His dad grabbed him and dragged off towards their house.</p><p>"It's not like the last few times, dad! I mean, I really, actually hit it! You guys were busy, and I had a very clear shot. It went down just off Raven Point. Let’s get a search party out there before it-”</p><p>“Stop!” Stoick yelled, before quieting down, “Just...stop. Every time you step outside, disaster follows. Can you not see I have bigger problems? Winter is almost here and I have an entire village to feed!”</p><p>“...Well, between you and me, the village could do with a little less feeding, don't you think?” The Vikings watching were only slightly disgruntled at that comment</p><p>“This isn’t a joke, Hiccup! Why can't you follow the simplest orders?”</p><p>“I-i can’t stop myself! I see a dragon, and I have to just...kill it, y’know? It’s...who I am, dad.”</p><p>“Oh, you are many things, Hiccup. But a dragon killer? That’s not one of them. Get back to the house. Make sure he gets there.” He spoke that last sentence to Gobber, who smacked the back of Hiccup's head as they walked, and he heard Stoick say, “I’ve his mess to clean up.” As they passed by.</p><p>“Quite the performance.” Tuffnut said, giving two thumbs up as Hiccup and Gobber passed by the line of teenagers, “I’ve never seen anyone mess up that badly. That helped!” Snotlout, the ever-present asshole, added. </p><p>“Thank you. Thank you, I was trying, so...” Hiccup replied, thoroughly done with these guys.</p><p>Hiccup and Gobber were nearing the chief’s house when Hiccup spoke up, “I really did hit one.”</p><p>“Sure ye did.” Gobber replied, almost absentmindedly</p><p>“He never listens!”</p><p> </p><p>“Well, it runs in the family.” Yeah, Gobber was definitely just reacting on instinct</p><p>“And- and when he does it’s always with a disappointed scowl, like someone skimped on the meat in his sandwich,” Hiccup did his best Stoick the Vast impression, which really wasn't all that great, “Excuse me, barmaid? I’m afraid you brought me the wrong offspring. I ordered an extra-large boy with beefy arms. This here? This is a talking fishbone!”</p><p>“Now, you're thinkin about this all wrong. It's not so much what you look like, it's what's inside that he can't stand.” Wow, way to cheer someone up, Gobber.</p><p>“Thank you, for summing that up,” He was about to leave, but Gobber started talking again, “Look, the point is, stop trying so hard to be something you're not,” WOW, GOBBER, WAY TO CHEER SOMEONE UP THANKS BUDDY.</p><p>“I just wanna be one of you guys…” </p><p>Hiccup ran inside and then out the back, into the forest. He had to find the Night Fury. he just...he <em>has to.</em></p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>you may have noticed the beginning was incredibly familiar. now, I couldn't imagine why that would be</p><p> </p><p>(don't worry though, we get into the juicy shit Soon)</p></blockquote></div></div>
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